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Living the Island Life at Sugar Bay Resort and Spa

When we were on St. Thomas, we had the opportunity to spend a few days living the island life at Sugar Bay Resort and Spa. This was our first trip to the Virgin Islands and we loved the laid-back vibe and warm Caribbean waters! What’s not to like about this incredible view from our room???

LOCATION

Sugar Bay Resort and Spa is located about five miles from downtown Charlotte Amalie, the epicenter of St. Thomas. That five miles equates to an approximate 20-min. drive on the islands’ winding two-lane roads – keep in mind that even though St. Thomas is a U.S. territory, residents drive on the left side of the road. There are several great beaches to stop at in the local area, the nearest of which is Coki Beach, which is home to some of the best snorkeling we’ve ever seen. Sugar Bay Resort and Spa also has its own private beach adjacent to the resort, but we found the snorkeling there couldn’t compare to Coki. For those who love activity, the hotel has a booth on the beach offering kayaks available for rent, which we took for a quick test paddle. There are lots of iguanas on the island, so don’t be frightened if you see one of these guys scurrying by when you’re relaxing poolside…

SERVICE

The service at Sugar Bay Resort and Spa was decent, but in general, we found that the customer service in the Virgin Islands was not as exceptional as other destinations we’ve traveled to, such as Mexico. Resort employees were not as attentive as we’ve experienced elsewhere – for example, one of the machines in the resort casino accidentally ate our money and the only person with a key to the machine wasn’t at work yet, so we had to wait about 30 minutes for her to retrieve our money. Perhaps the level of customer service is due to the relaxing island culture, but we expected a higher level of service from a costly resort. We learned you definitely have to expect things to be done on “island time” when visiting St. Thomas.

AMENITIES

Sugar Bay Resort and Spa has an all-inclusive option, which we decided not to partake in since we wanted to sample the fare at local restaurants. We enjoyed taking a taxi into town and sampling different restaurants at night – and we even stayed at our hotel and ate on our balcony for a few meals because we found the oceanfront view couldn’t be beat. Our favorite and most-frequented amenity during our stay was the resort pool, which had a gorgeous waterfall and full-service swim-up pool bar. If you haven’t yet, we highly recommend you try the BBC – a signature Caribbean cocktail containing Bailey’s, banana and coconut. Trust us, you won’t be disappointed. And you probably won’t want to order any other drink ever again. Since we had the pool to ourselves most of the time, we tested out Todd’s underwater camera with a little underwater photo shoot…

Sugar Bay Resort and Spa has an excellent beach-front location with gorgeous surroundings and an amazing grotto pool, but lacks a bit in customer service and focus. Like many other Caribbean islands, attendants at the resort seemed to adopt the island lifestyle, which can sometimes come across as lackadaisical. Overall, we enjoyed our stay at this resort and it was a great experience for our first voyage to the Virgin Islands.